The Fendi Family On The Maison’s Matriarchy
Before the iconic Italian maison made its announcement that Maria Grazia Chiuri would be returning to the house as Chief Creative Officer, Harper’s Bazaar spoke to Silvia Venturini Fendi and Delfina Delettrez Fendi about the brand’s spectacular growth, its long-standing matriarchal legacy, and the enduring power of family as it celebrates its centenary
There’s an Italian saying “una bella famiglia comincia con una figlia” (“A beautiful family starts with a daughter.”) This was certainly true in the case of 1920s Roman businesswoman Adele Fendi, who gave birth to five daughters and a multi-billion-dollar fashion empire. In a sense, the brand, which turns 100 this year, is another member of the dynasty: a sixth daughter for Adele and her husband, Edoardo. In a rare interview, she once said: “Thank God I have five daughters. My husband wanted a boy, but I am very happy because I truly believe one day women are going to take the lead.”
We haven’t got there yet. These days, there are woefully few women at the helm of a major fashion house. Most brands, even those with female founders and a strong feminine sensibility, are headed up by a creative director who is a man. “It’s a shame,” says Silvia Venturini Fendi, Adele’s granddaughter. “Because, if you see the creative teams, there are so many women involved.” In her view, male CEOs tend to promote other men to top roles. “It’s habit,” she says. “It’s not done on purpose.” “I see it as a missed opportunity,” adds her daughter Delfina Delettrez Fendi. “Society is still fundamentally unequal, and so men are in charge.” Things are different at Fendi, where, these days, the women of the family rule: Silvia is the artistic director of women’s and men’s fashion and accessories, while Delfina heads up the brand’s newish — and wildly successful — jewellery arm.
We are speaking via Teams, with Silvia sitting in her office in the Palazzo della Civiltà Italiana, a glamorous 1930s building straight out of a Fellini film, her back to a view of the Vatican as it swelters in a 40-degree July heatwave. Delfina is also in Rome but, thanks to the ferocious A/C, she’s suffering with a summer cold and has lost her voice, so she’s speaking huskily from home. Normally, both women work from the Palazzo that is Fendi’s headquarters. For, although LVMH became Fendi’s majority shareholder in 2001, it’s still at heart a Roman business, and a family one at that.
And so, when Silvia conceived Fendi’s 100th-anniversary show, which took place in Milan in February, she asked her seven-year-old grandsons Tadzio and Dardo to open proceedings. Dressed in replicas of an equestrian outfit she herself wore at their age in a Fendi advert, the twin boys walked up the catwalk towards a huge pair of doors styled to look like the entrance to the maison’s Rome headquarters. They flung the doors wide to let the models stalk out, and then scampered back to the front row to join their mother Delfina. “The boys don’t really understand what Fendi is,” says Delfina of their runway debut. “To them, it feels like a very important woman they’ve never met. I want them to understand what’s behind those five letters.” According to Silvia, though, the twins were in their element. “They liked it very much,” she chips in. “They’ve been asking me when the next show is because they need to be ready.” “You’ve created two little monsters!” says Delfina, laughing. “They’re already under the spell.
“Silvia’s mother Anna, who is now 92 and who used to head up the creative studio at Fendi, was in the audience for the centenary collection, as was her aunt Paola, the house’s former president. This was the first show Paola had attended since she handed over the leadership to another sister, back in 1994. “It was an important moment for me,” recalls Silvia. “They were tough judges, and to see them happy made me feel so emotional and proud. It was like winning a prize.” But there are, as Silvia says, “our families of origin and our families of choice.” Sarah Jessica Parker, who was also there to watch the landmark show, is a core member of the Fendi fashion family of choice. That relationship dates back to the late 1990s, when the first season of Sex and the City was being filmed. “They asked for samples from everyone,” says Silvia. “And we were the only brand that lent them anything.” This early generosity reaped its rewards, and the Baguette evening bag, one of Silvia’s greatest handbag hits (of which there are many), owes at least some of its viral fame to the series.
As for Delfina, the anniversary show gave her “a feeling of continuity, but not in a nostalgic way. It felt so alive. It was talking about the past, but it was also the future. It was truly emotional to be there, to be a bridge between the past 100 years and hopefully the next 100, and to see how the Fendi woman reinvents herself without losing her Roman soul.” That spirit was there in the voluminous shearling coats, treated to look like fox fur, the chevron-leather dresses and the jewel-coloured, peep-toe satin slippers. “It was very theatrical and cinematic – I felt I could see a part of myself there in all those women that I’ve always dreamt of,” she adds.
It’s hardly surprising that the 37-year-old mother of three recognised herself in the collection, for she, along with her siblings, Giulio Cesare and Leonetta, are inspirations for their mother. “My vision has been shaped by the women I love – and, of course, you are one of those women,” says Silvia. Now 64, she has been working at the fashion house since 1994, when she was drafted in by Karl Lagerfeld. The legendary designer was Fendi’s artistic director from 1965 until his death in 2019. He harnessed her talent and energy to design the all-important accessories for the brand. While fashion can set the tone, its shoes and bags that make the serious money. Silvia delivered, making waves not only with the Baguette, but also the Peekaboo, the Origami, the First…
Kim Jones used a similar recruitment process to lure Delfina to the house when he joined as artistic director of couture and womenswear in 2020. “You know, on the day Kim arrived, I was waiting for him on the massive staircase,” says Silvia. “And the first thing he said was, ‘Where’s Delfina?’ And I said, ‘She’s not working at Fendi, she’s doing her jewellery designing.’ I would never have called her in –you want your children to make their own way, to find their path. So he said, ‘OK, don’t you call her, I’ll call her. I want her, I like her style, and she does incredible jewellery.’ He made me the happiest mother.”
As for Delfina herself, she didn’t hesitate. “I’m very instinctive,” she says now. “When you carry such an important name, you have to make peace with it.” She has done that, knowing that she’s been called to join the brand not because of her surname, but because of her talent. “I had my own independent voice and I had skills that they didn’t have,” she explains. “So I could create a new chapter linked to the family codes and what Fendi represented, but with a platform of my own that could be more personal. “Fendi had never done fine or high jewellery before Delfina’s arrival, which gave her a blank canvas to build her own vision for this new venture. It’s one she believes complements Fendi’s other activities: “Fashion shouts, accessories speak, jewellery can listen and whisper,” she says. “It’s close to the skin, it’s hidden, it’s symbolic and it carries emotion, memory and meticulous craftsmanship.” Fendi has always had its surreal side – the Karlito bag charm, a pompom made to look like Lagerfeld, complete with white foxfur ponytail, springs to mind – and this is an aspect Delfina can channel. Take her latest high-jewellery collection Eaux d’Artifice, which turns the Trevi Fountain into a diamond necklace.
Silvia only wears jewellery designed by Delfina these days. “I feel so proud when people ask me where I got something and I say, ‘My daughter made it.” You feel like you’ve achieved. You’ve done your duty and you’re helping her be who she is? Apart from the accessories, Silvia’s personal style is stripped back to the bone. I like to be a blank canvas, she says. I like being detached from the collection, so I very seldom wear what I design. Bag-wise, it’s a different matter, and she’s always testing a prototype. Last time we met, it was a jaunty woven-leather tote in a rainbow of colours, with her initials covering one entire side. Today, it’s the most discreet of soft black Peekaboos.
As for Delfina, she has been digging into her mother’s and grandmother’s wardrobes since she was a child. “I like mixing different collections, different epochs, different styles. I’m drawn to pieces that are vintage, but I treat them as if they are ultra-modem and contemporary!” She does the same thing with Rome’s ecclesiastical outfitters. In the past, looking for a summer dress, she’d buy nuns’ scapulars (the long overall worn on top of the habit) in khaki and beige. The shop staff only realised she wasn’t a nun herself when she asked one of the seamstresses to cinch it in at the waist.
*I was saying. “Make it tighter, make it tighter!” She was like, “No! You can’t! That’s sexy.” So I had to tell her the truth. Then we became friends.” “Well,” says her mother thoughtfully, “it’s the year to be inspired by Vatican chic.” One senses a collection taking form.
Because this is how the Fendis work. Ideas come around the family table, says Silvia. The clan have a large estate on the edge of Rome and they gather there for meals. They also spend a week together in the summer. “Last year, we went cruising,” says Silvia. “But there were only 24 of us.” At Christmas, one of the satellite males will dress up as Santa to bring presents to the children, “but they always recognise him”. So, other than a bit part as Father Christmas, what is the role of a man in the Fendi dynasty?
“They’re very curious at the beginning, of this matriarchal, feminine, womanly power,” says Delfina. “Then they do start to feel a bit left out?” But, says Silvia, her son, Giulio Cesare, “is a good prototype of a new man. Being raised by all those women was really good for him. He has children and a fantastic wife and, adds his sister, he’s very connected to women’s feelings and open to talking and listening.”
Whether in the office or at a big family gathering. Neither woman ever switches off. As Silvia says: “You have to always have your antenna up.” Delfina, meanwhile, describes her mother as a living example of the fact that you can’t detach work from your personal life. For Silvia, creativity is “in our DNA – probably it’s something you inherit.” She understood at a very early age that “beauty is substantial, it’s not ephemeral”. And, for the Fendi women, the search for beauty is a way of life.
Lead Image Credits: Sivia Venturini Fendi (left) and her daughter Delfina Delettrez Fendi
Images: Supplied